I have my joojoo and my ipad [2nd one after the first had a defective screen not very nice Mr Jobs] so its time to compare and dispel some myths
1. Comparison the First : Packaging for the love of unboxing geeks everywhere
The joojoo comes in the most gorgeous packaging for hardware EVER , I could swear its even scented , and it is ! you could strut around NY/Paris/Tokyo/Mumbai/London/Shanghai with this and the in crowd would constantly dig you about your Jimmy joo box ! take a look see:
cue 2001 Also Sprach Zarathustra music please :
so that didn't get you throwing bones into the air?
the outer box slides off the inner box :
and the inner box has a magnetic flap that lifts to reveal sir or madams shiney new joojoo
note the svelte faux foam lining protecting the joojoo from harm!lifting the joojoo out reveals the instructions and your very own joojoo cleaning cloth and reset pin
and for those obsessing is the back metal or not , yes it is and here it is in all its champagne coloured glory
there is an ugly power lead but to show that would not be chic , and what you really need to know is that its Singapore configuration means you will need a travel adapter to plug it in where ever you are !
The Apple iPad comes in its own unique packaging where 90% of the box is just that , box! which is coo in its own way , I mean 2 million customers like it so there , none of that fanboy nonsense here please , here s a picture of a sealed one I prepared earlier
But the thing is once you add the power cable extension
2.Comparison the 2nd : innnital COSTs and running Costs , and money it can earn you back
Setup costs :
The total cost of the joojoo comes to £334 + Vat [ around £61] + £7 for the travel adapter to get it working!
Now this is where Apple got me
£699 for Apple iPad
£25 power cable
£30 for the offical case [ absolutely necessary]
£20 for the screen guard /body protection
£25 for the camera connection kit
£30 for the component cable
I am not even going to add those up or I will start crying ....
Running costs
joojoo is app free , and therefore running cost free ! you wont be paying for an app or buying anything from the internet other than you would normally from a pc /mac/laptop
my iPad has so far cost me around £40 for the irristable apps that I cannot live without
the app store is where they will get me in the end!
Both these devices can earn you money although there are high initial hardware costs , over time the convenience and shear fun nature of using these new devices will lead to increased productivity , learning and well shiney happy people tend to be more productive , and thats what you get with these devices just ask 2 million iPad owners.
3.Comparison the third : Immediate problems faced by the new joojoo and ipad owner
It is important to realise both joojoo and iPad are really Beta products , no one has ever field tested touch screens this large en masse with millions of users so both setting up and use of hardware and software on both throw up many interesting problems .
The fact that Apple and Fusion Garage are so keen to get our feedback on these problems is a good sign , but also a reminder that these are new products , whose creators themselves have yet to uncover all the bugs in hardware , software and even the retail /support side , I mean have you tried getting a replacement for your Apple iPad 64 gb 3g machine when its sold out everywhere?
setting up hardware pains :
joojoo has no UK/EU power cord , you need to get hold of a travel adapter
The Apple iPad needs protection , you will spend around 24 hours applying ANY screen guard [ I have had Zagg and now easiskin] do not believe any video that shows you otherwise . You are not the person in the video , the thing will stick like Blair to Bush , and not slide around as shown and then you will wait with out sleep for a whole night as the thing bakes , oh the horror!
With the joojoo no one has yet created a 12.1 screen guard, and I am not going to kill myself applying one after my experience with the iPad which was only 9.7 inches of screen guard application hell!
more hardware and software pains
With the iPad the wifi connecting warning shows up too frequently , the same connection manages to work with my pc ,ps3 , 360 ,pspgo and now joojoo , this is a software not hardware problem.With the iPad youtube videos tend to stop halfway , you have to come out and restart the video
With the joojoo ; the thiing runs hotter than the iPad , and fans blow out some nice warm air which may be the reason why the thing doesn't lock up and manages to play through entire you tube videos without locking like the iPad
These are minor niggles , software will fix them, average joes won't notice them
4. Comparison the 4th : Dispelling some myths
The iPad does multitask , the most important and only really relevant multtasking to most users is can you play music whilst surfing and the answer to this is yes you can ! hit that ipod tab and start your tunes ladys and gentlemen , then go on safari!
The joojoo can play flawless video , it really shines when playing hidef video , the screen is the perfect 16:9 ration , when it comes to lower quality flash , it depends on the implementation of flash on sites , some sites will play perfectly , others who use older versions of Flash will not , this will improve with software updates , and I mean software updates from Adobe not Fusion Garage , the hardware is more than capable , see it running hidef video and you will agree
Adobe really need to improve Flash , if they want to see it continue or other standards will pass them by .
If anything the release of the joojoo and iPad are wake up calls to Adobe , and a final notice that the days of just expecting pc owners to upgrade hardware to cope with upgrades of lazy coding are long gone , after all no one expects you to upgrade your hardware everytime a java update comes out now do they? its time for Adobe to optomise or fadeaway in a Flash! and no crying over nasty letters from Steve , genius needs to be encouraged not yabooed!
5. Comparison the 5th : Screen power
This paragraph dear readers was written from my shiney new joojoo fresh from the guys at Fusion Garage ,with the massive 12.1 inch screen turned vertical ,I can see the blogger edit box ,post options,and the keyboard with plenty of room to spare, written in Blogger ! more than I see on my 30 inch LCD !
And when you switch to vertical , a little joojoo logo lights up at the top of the joojoo, whilst the joojoo logo on the horizontal orientation switches off! Oh the minutes I have wasted switching joojoo signs!
The screens are both very bright , too bright in fact , so although you may be tempted to switch off ambient sensors ,don`t your retinas and optometrist will thank you.
When you see pictures of the joojoo looking dim, it is not because the screen is not as bright as the iPads , its the sensor being over cautious , which may be better for our health in the long run ,turn it off and your face will become a veritable moth magnet within seconds!
6. Comparison the 6th :Interface and basic usage
Hands down the joojoo is better for web surfing , the coolest feature is having more pages open than you could on a pc or mac ,without constantly adjusting display options , and if you see pop ups or a page you no longer need , you don't need to spend any time mousing over to the x button to close them you just swipe them off the screen , its so addictive it should have a score attached to it , plus moving from one window to another is another simple swipe , and you get to see the whole page and nothing but the page , including flash. Of course it can be improved , some of the websites have tiny tiny buttons but I have the same problem on my high res pc display with 2500 1600 res , the buttons are way too small or time consuming to zoom too!Web site designers really need to evolve user interfaces past the hunt the x button at the corner of the screen or click the tiny text heading we all put up with at present.
Safari on the iPad is also a pleasure to use , you just have to like zooming , if you do then that's half the fun of it ,again website designers need to evolve navigation on their sites to suit tablets , also ironically because Steve has freed us from Flash , many websites load faster because well , you only load part of them , some times absolutely none of them [ as they are flash based] . This is the glass half full half empty aspect that Steve likes to tease us with , I mean if a web site loads faster on my iPad , but with much of the content missing , is it really functional as a web surfing device ? May be the pressure of millions of new iPad owners many of whom are also new to Apple`s walled garden philosophy , will finally force some feedback change and remove the gimping of the iPads full potential .Like I said earlier this will also require Adobe to work with or around its problems , if Google ,Sun and Microsoft can , I am sure Apple and Adobe can too.
The joojoos web surfing problems , will be fixed by software updates , there is no embargo placed on Flash , or anything else , but suppliers of all online middleware , codecs , and cloud services would do well to take notice of open devices like the joojoo as the cloud will remain user less ! if the users are not introduced to cloud centric hardware like the joojoo
Restrict your code or hardware usage and people will eventually walk around the walled gardens you build to protect your business and move on to the next big thing .
The joojoo has a keyboard large enough to use , and one that can be moved around the screen , it also has a caps lock but lower case does not at present alter the keyboard bitmap , but this is minor , the benefits are you do not have to hold caps lock down to change from cases , and its so large ,and is far easier to use to enter complex passwords , than the iPads , where you constantly have to switch from numerals to text to lower and upper case to enter a complex password
These are minor niggles again software updates can iron them out .
Using an add on keyboard defeats the point of having a tablet , as you are not touching the web any more , why not get a laptop instead sir/madam?
The joojoo of course has a USB connection , useful for mice and keyboards at the moment and soon for 3g and data storage , or so we are promised
The iPad has too many dongles , and all that cost a lot more than you would expect , there is no plan for USB etc
The thing is neither device needs these , the whole point of a slate is to liberate you as much from the old ways of using a pc or mac , the ideal slate is one which is just a window to the cloud , so you never have the need for traditional storage , or entry methods ,that doesn't stop you from buying every white dongle going though!
Battery power , is irrelevant , lets say you want to use your joojoo to watch a streamed movie in Flash , well you can , with power to spare , you cannot do that in 10 hours of battery life of the iPad , or if you want to tweet from Twitter , use Facebook , check your email whilst running a video in the background , you can do that with the 5 hour battery life of the joojoo , you cannot with 10 hours of battery life of the iPad
Believe me when you own these devices , you are going to keep them hooked up to the mains , so battery life will be really irrelevant , also if you want to survive your journey wherever , then you will leave or use your precious at home ......thief Baggins it stole our....
A first conclusion : I love these devices , you see to me the Fusion Garage joojoo and Apple iPad are synergistic devices, touching the web is the first step to augmented/virtual reality cyberspace decks and Rastafari running space stations [Neuromancer] Jah bless indeed !
And both the joojoo and iPad take the important step of eliminating full blown operating systems. Its no accident that so much PC usage has switched to phones which boot in seconds , have user interfaces that do not require training certification courses , where Apple is behind is not realising the potential of the cloud , Apple could have released the iPad or a version of it with a tiny ssd and stored everything in itunes on the cloud, , the cost of the iPad hardware would then be significantly less . But you cannot argue with 2 million sales !
These devices are going to change the way we work and play , they are both very beta , which for techfans makes them even more interesting ,and for users adds a wow factor as they learn new ways of doing everyday mundane pc tasks ,so get on the Slate train , just remember you do not NEED these devices for anything useful , but because you are worth it! Viva imperialist decadent capitilism !
